ABB Robots and the Rise of Laser Weeding Farms

From hand-hoed sugar beets in 1972 to AI laser weeders on autonomous tractors, and how ABB vision picking and IP67 robots relate to robotic weeding.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/26/20261 min read

In June 1972, migrant workers near Fort Collins, Colorado weeded sugar beet rows with long hoes for two dollars an hour. It was one of the hardest farm jobs, walking bent over down endless rows, and the weeds came back a few weeks later.

Row of farm workers in hats hoeing weeds between sugar beet rows
Row of farm workers in hats hoeing weeds between sugar beet rows

Migrant workers weed sugar beets near Fort Collins, Colorado, June 1972. Photo: Bill Gillette / US National Archives (public domain)

Herbicides took over much of that work, but weeds grew resistant and organic growers could not use them anyway. In vegetable fields and tea gardens a lot of weeding is still done by hand, and the crews who do it are getting harder to hire.

Worker in a conical hat bending over green tea bushes to pull weeds
Worker in a conical hat bending over green tea bushes to pull weeds

Weeding a tea garden by hand, 2019. Photo: Oliver Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

Robots now handle some of it. Future Farming reported in September that a Danish farm pairing an AgXeed autonomous tractor with a Carbon Robotics LaserWeeder cut its weeding labour costs significantly. The LaserWeeder uses cameras and AI to find each weed and burn it with a laser, and Carbon Robotics reports more than $100 million in yearly revenue.

Large orange autonomous weeding robot lit up over rows of young vegetables
Large orange autonomous weeding robot lit up over rows of young vegetables

A FarmWise Titan FT-35 weeding robot working vegetable rows at night. Photo: PaulineCant / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

ABB doesn't build field robots, but its engineers know the core problem well: spot a small target on a moving surface and hit it fast. An ABB IRB 360 FlexPicker does this with PickMaster vision when it picks items off a running conveyor.

Engineer at a laptop beside an enclosed ABB delta robot picking cell
Engineer at a laptop beside an enclosed ABB delta robot picking cell

An ABB IRB 360 FlexPicker cell set up with PickMaster vision software. Photo: ABB

Farm work also needs tough hardware. The ABB IRB 1300 in Foundry Plus 2 protection is rated IP67 against dust and water, the kind of sealing an outdoor arm would need. ABB arc welding robots are also a common sight in plants that weld frames for heavy machinery.

ABB robot arm with a Foundry Plus 2 protective jacket and gripper in a cell
ABB robot arm with a Foundry Plus 2 protective jacket and gripper in a cell

An ABB IRB 1300 in Foundry Plus 2 protection, rated IP67. Photo: ABB

Laser weeders are still big, expensive machines for large growers. As the vision gets cheaper I expect smaller versions on shared autonomous tractors, and one day garden robots that pull dandelions out of a lawn. I would hand that job over gladly.

Orange ABB welding robot next to a large positioner holding a steel workpiece
Orange ABB welding robot next to a large positioner holding a steel workpiece

An ABB welding robot with a positioner holding a steel part. Photo: Ana / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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